Dark Age of Camelot

Dark Age of Camelot is a fast paced PvP oriented 3D Fantasy MMORPG set in a period of time after King Arthur’s rule. Join either Hibernia, Albion of Midgard and fight for your realm in the game’s large scale realm vs realm battles. What are you waiting for? Check out the Dark Age of Camelot free trial today!

Dark Age of Camelot Overview

Dark Age of Camelot was one of the first few major MMORPGs on the market. With a strong emphasis on large scale ‘Realm vs Realm’ PvP, Dark Age of Camelot carved out its junk of the MMORPG market. The game was originally released in late 2001, and has since enjoyed the release of 8 expansion packs and numerous other free content updates. Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of Dark Age of Camelot is the game’s ability to age really well, as the game has been able to ‘keep up’ with the times while other older MMORPGs have fallen behind. The best part about this free trial though, is that it has absolutely no restrictions. Players have full access to the game and its numerous expansions for a full 14 days.

Dark Age of Camelot Screenshots

Dark Age of Camelot Featured Video

Full Review

Dark Age of Camelot Review

By, Omer Altay

Dark of Camelot, DAoC for short, is a 3D MMORPG set in a fantasy world after King Arthur’s rule. It was one of the first major pay to play games, as it was released back in 2001 when there were only two other major MMORPGs on the market; EverQuest and Ultima Online. Mythic, the game’s developers designed Dark Age of Camelot to compete head to head with EverQuest for the rapidly growing 3D MMORPG market. Now, unlike EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot has a strong emphasis on PvP, as DAoC introduced the concept of large scale ‘Realm Vs Realm’ (RvR) PvP to the MMORPG genre. On top of introducing an entirely new system of PvP, Dark Age of Camelot also launched back in 2001 with jawdroppingly gorgeous graphics and has routinely updated its graphics and gameplay to keep up with the times. If you’re looking for a solid fantasy MMORPG, look no further, Dark Age of Camelot is certainly worth checking out.

It Aged Well.

Unlike some pay to play games like Ultima Online and Asheron’s Call, Dark Age of Camelot has aged surprisingly well. The game’s graphic engine has been overhauled countless times and since its release, the game seen the release of 8 expansion packs and countless smaller content updates. Even Dark Age of Camelot’s gameplay has kept up with the times, as back when the game first came out the concept of ‘instancing’ didn’t exist, but after World of Warcraft popularized the idea, Dark Age of Camelot quickly brought the feature to their players with the release of ‘Dark Age of Camelot: Catacombs’ in late 2004. Free trial users do have access to instanced dungeons, as the DAoC free trial includes two popular expansions, one of them being ‘Catacombs’. New players should be able to ease into the game without much trouble, as the last big patch introduced a tutorial to the game with voiced over instructions. Whether you’re new to the game or looking to come back, easing into DAoC shouldn’t be any trouble.

44 Classes / 18 Races WOW!

Perhaps the best aspect of Dark Age of Camelot is its incredible amount of variety. Each of the game’s three realms has access to different classes and races with no overlaps, which results in an enormous amount of variety. You’d imagine with three realms, that the game would just make a set of eight classes and reuse them for all three realms, but that isn’t the case here. All 44 classes in Dark Age of Camelot are genuinely different. Sure there are some similarities between an “Armsman”, the main tank class in Albion, and a Hero’, the main tank class in Hibernia, but they still have completely different skills and other subtle differences. On top of having so many classes, each player has access to every single class in the game, meaning that players can create characters on any of the three realms on a single server at the same time. Aside from variety, Dark Age of Camelot still has a lot to offer.

A Lot of Content. Seriously.

Dark Age of Camelot has an enormous amount of content, and the best part is that since the free trial has ZERO limitations players have access to all of it. I’ve actually played Dark Age of Camelot quite a bit, and have reached the maximum level of 50 on one of my characters and I can still safely say I never came close to even seeing half of what the game had to offer. Seriously, the amount of dungeons and places to explore are nearly limitless. On top of that, the game has a LOT of quests. Quests were never a big part of the game when it first launched, but the folks over at Mythic really outdid themselves, as everywhere I look I see NPCs ready to hand out quests, and unlike some MMORPGs quests in Dark Age of Camelot are well worth doing, as they’re a quick way to acquire magic equipment.

Smooth Responsive Gameplay

The actual gameplay and fluidity of Dark Age of Camelot is up to par with other pay to play titles. The game has a maximum level cap of 50, numerous crafting skills, a faction system, and just about every other common MMORPG element. One interesting feature the game has, that’ i’d love for other games to copy, is the game’s quest interface. Before receiving a quest, players are presented with a small screen that quickly outlines what the quest is, the item reward, and exactly how much experience it yields. The experience points rewarded are actually shown ‘graphically’ which allows players to quickly gauge whether a quest is worth accepting or declining. Other games just throw out a number, like 500 XP, which in and of itself mean nothing. Yes, I know this is such a small detail, but for some reason I found it extremely useful and wish other games had a similar system.

Albion vs Hibernia vs Midgard (RvR)

The premise of Dark Age of Camelot’s PvP is simple. There are three nations that are at perpetual war; Albion, Hibernia and Midgard. The thing is though, the three ‘realms’ can only battle it out in the game’s ‘frontiers’, which are special areas designated to open PvP, so players don’t have to worry about being jumped while trying to level up. Each realm starts with two relics that each provides the entire realm a stat bonus. The objective in Real vs Realm combat is to try and capture relics from opposing realms in order to secure their ‘bonuses’ for your realm. Relics are difficult to capture though because they’re housed in forts which must first be attacked and taken over, which can be extremely difficult. Another interesting facet of the game’s PvP is that players can purchase and use siege weaponry out in the frontiers, which adds a bit more spice to an already intense PvP setting. Other than capturing relics, players earn ‘Real Points’ every time they kill a member of an opposing realm which can be exchanged for special skills called ‘Realm Skills’ that can permanently boost stats and grant access to new and enormously powerful skills and abilities. I found the game’s PvP both interesting and extremely rewarding, a combination not found in most MMORPGs.

Final Verdict – Good

Dark Age of Camelot has an enormous amount of content a PvP system that revolutionized the MMORPG genre and a whole lot more. The only real downside is that the game’s population is in decline and that even with the graphical updates DAoC’s graphics can’t compete with that of newer MMORPGs. With absolutely no restrictions in the free trial though, Dark Age of Camelot is certainly worth the download.

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Camelot Unchained - Camelot Unchained is an Arthurian fantasy MMORPG from City State Entertainment and Mark Jacobs, founder of Mythic Entertainment and known for his development of Dark Age of Camelot. Camelot Unchained offers the three factions of Arthurian, Tuatha De Danann, and Viking, and focuses on Realm-vs-Realm, housing, and a player economy, along with crafting and other features